Is he tall or short, or dark or fair?Does he sit on a stool or a sofa or a chair, or SQUAT, The Akond of Swat?

A delightful nonsense poem by Edward Lear, sounding particularly like Dr Seuss in this example. Scroll down for the full text. Make sure you read it out loud. Lear appended a note to the rhyme: "For the existence of this potentate see Indian newspapers, passim. The proper way to read the verses is to make an immense emphasis on the monosyllabic rhymes, which indeed ought to be shouted out by a chorus."

Having no nineteenth-century Indian newspapers to hand, we have to find something on the Web about the Akond of Swat, but which isn't the Lear. He was a real person, the ruler of a native state in what is now the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The Akhond, Akond, or Akund "was a Sufi ascetic with a highly charismatic and warlike personality who united the Swatis and made his capital at Saidu Sharif."(1)

Swat is a beautiful valley in what was once the partly Hellenised kingdom of Gandhara. "Here, the snow peaks of the Karakorums widen and thaw into a landslide of cultivation terraces. Below, the Swat River -- in autumn the colour of lapis-lazuli -- meanders lazily around a green plain of orchards and wheat fields."(2)

The state was ruled sporadically by Muslim religious leaders with the title of akhond; secular rulers between 1849 and 1863, and again 1914 to 1918, were known as amir-e shariyat, changed to badshah until 1926, then wali.(3) The last Wali of Swat was removed by the Pakistani government in 1969 and the tribal state was abolished.

His legacy today is probably this very curious one: the American baseball player Babe Ruth was nicknamed the Sultan of Swat, and that monicker was familiar enough that the group Dire Straits played on it again to give Sultans of Swing.

1 comment:

Environmental and Societal Effects on HeightFood, water, clothing and shelter – these are the basic needs of man. When it comes to growing up and growing tall, food and water has a direct effect on an individual. But these are not the only influences that a person has as he grows older. The society that he is part of is also correlated to his growth, and in turn, in his height.Let us first talk how his environment at home can help a person grow taller. If a young man grows up in a place where the cabinets are placed high on the wall, the light switch is on a higher level and such, that man is inclined to stretch and reach up. Since he always stretches his limbs, this person will grow taller than his peers. Visit here for more, http;//www.growth-flex.com .Usually in local towns, there are several annual activities laid by the townsfolk, hence everyone is pretty much busy manually – which means they use their physical strength to do the activities, the people here will have a bigger body built as compared to their counterparts who live in the city, where the usual activity is walking towards the elevator or towards their car. Simply put, people exposed to societal activities that require them to participate physically will grow taller than others.If you live in the city where your regular form of entertainment is watching a movie, there is hardly any activity there, right? If you want to grow taller, expose yourself to several activities that physically boost your body. You can also make use of highly acclaimed growth releasers such as Growth Flex V Pro System. Go to http;//www.growth-flex.com .----------------------------------jhoncena